Prepositions

The use of prepositions is, without doubt, one of the most difficult areas of English grammar. Swan (Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1997) comments:

"It is difficult to learn to use prepositions correctly in a foreign language. Most English prepositions have several different functions (for instance, one well-known dictionary lists eighteen main uses of at), and these may correspond to several different prepositions in another language. At the same time, different prepositions can have very similar uses (in the morning, on Monday morning, at night). Many nouns, verbs and adjectives are normally used with particular prepositions: we say the reason for, arrive at, angry with somebody, on a bus. Often the correct preposition cannot be guessed, and one has to learn the expression as a whole. In some expressions English has no preposition where one may be used in another language; in other expressions the opposite is true."

Preposition Use - in / at / on - prepositions of place

IN

Use 'in' with spaces:

• in a room / in a building

• in a garden / in a park

Use 'in' with bodies of water:

• in the water

• in the sea

• in a river

Use 'in' with lines:

• in a row / in a line

• in a queue

AT

Use 'at' with places:

• at the bus-stop

• at the door

• at the cinema

• at the end of the street

Use 'at' with places on a page:

• at the top of the page

• at the bottom of the page

Use 'at' in groups of people:

• at the back of the class

• at the front of the class

ON

Use 'on' with surfaces:

• on the ceiling / on the wall / on the floor

• on the table

Use 'on' with small islands:

• I stayed on Maui.

Use 'on' with directions:

• on the left

• on the right

• straight on

IMPORTANT NOTES

In / at / on the corner

We say 'in the corner of a room', but 'at the corner (or 'on the corner') of a street'

In / at / on the front

• We say 'in the front / in the back' of a car

• We say 'at the front / at the back' of buildings / groups of people

• We say 'on the front / on the back' of a piece of paper

Copied from http://esl.about.com/library/grammar/blgr_prep1.htm

The document above is incomplete. The preposition IN is used with spaces, volumes and 3-dimensional stuff, but we use ON with surfaces. We say: “IN the park” or “IN the woods”because we see a park or a wood with trees as a volumen, but we say “ON the grass, ON the floor, ON the praire, ON the moors, etc. A trick: an America woman (Laura Ingalls Wilder) wrote her life in some books. The most known were “Little House ON the Prairie” and “Little House IN the Big Woods”.

The preposition AT is used as a point and IN is used meaning “inside”. If we say “AT the cinema” we probably mean “AT the cinema’s front door”, but if we say “IN the cinema”, we say “INSIDE the cinema”. So we say: “I’ll meet you IN the airport AT the meeting point”.

The preposition of place OF has two meanings:

- the most common: Used to indicate position above and supported by or in contact with: The vase is on the table. We rested on our hands and knees.

- less common: Used to indicate contact with or extent over (a surface) regardless of position: a picture on the wall; a rash on my back; a stain on the wall; a stain on the ceiling. We use ON to indicate contact with a surface. I doesn’t matter if the thing in contact with the surface is above, under or one side.

We use at for specific addresses.

Grammar English lives at 55 Boretz Road in Durham.

We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.

Her house is on Boretz Road.

And we use in for the names of land-areas (towns, counties, states, countries, and continents).

She lives in Durham.

Durham is in Windham County.

Windham County is in Connecticut.